#9 - Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks)

Anyone who follows this blog (which may well be nobody) knows I've been learning to love westerns over the past few months. So yet again, it's another week, another new favorite western. Hawks and Wayne intended this to be a response to High Noon, which they felt was a poor representation of the spirit of a true western sheriff. What could be a reactionary dirge (see: any Duke movie after this), is a fun, character-driven romp. What I love about Rio Bravo is the looseness to the proceedings. There is next to no plot, just a bunch of guys hanging around drinking and smoking and trying not to drink and smoke.

As Sheriff John T. Chance, John Wayne is the straight man amongst a rag-tag gang protecting the town, always responsible and sensible though he can take a joke. Dean Martin is the other lead, a sheriff's deputy struggling with sobriety after a two-year bender. Ricky Nelson is way out of his league as the scrappy young gunslinger taken under Chance's wing. He finally makes himself useful in a totally unnecessary but totally entertaining pair of musical numbers with Martin.

new #100: Aparajito